Mum defends decision after twins die in Byron Bay ‘wild birth’

A mother has defended her decision to “freebirth” after her newborn twin sons died in her home earlier this month.

A mother has taken to social media to defend her decision to “freebirth” following the tragic deaths of her twin babies in her NSW home.

Couple Sally Patti and Thomas lost their twin boys, Dusty and Melvin, after they were born earlier this month at 36 weeks gestation.

A ‘freebirth or ‘wild birth’ is where a mother births her child with little to no outside assistance.

Emergency services were called to the couple’s home in Mullumbimby, 20km from Byron Bay, on Sunday, February 11, following reports of a concern for welfare.

Paramedics treated the two infants, one of whom died at the scene.

The other was rushed to Tweed Heads Hospital but could not be saved.

Sally Patti and her partner Tom lost their twin sons earlier this month. Picture: GoFundMe

Ms Patti later shared the heartbreaking news of her sons’ deaths in a post on Instagram, where she described birthing her boys in “sovereignty” and said her babies had a rare medical condition.

“On the Aquarius new moon, I birthed our twin sons,” she wrote in the post, which was later shared on Reddit.

“Dusty came roaring and screaming into this world, so incredibly filled with life, birthed with just Tome and I in the love of our home.”

Ms Patti explained her second son, Melvin, was born shortly after but had already passed “possibly earlier in the day”.

“I think I know the moment he passed,” she wrote. “I looked up at the blue sky and felt a sense of peace, stars in my eyes and thought my labour would that night.”

“Melvin’s sole purpose was to keep his brother alive, they were both completely and utterly reliant on one another to live. They shared the same placenta, they shared the same blood vessels, they chose to come in together and leave together.”

Ms Patti said she was in a “deep grief like no other” but was “grateful” she got to grow her sons with “love and freedom and happiness”.

“Never did I think that this would be my story. To not have them with me.”

Ms Patti shared a post on Instagram about her sons’ deaths. Picture: Instagram/Reddit

She said she was grateful she got to birth them in “sovereignty”. Picture: Instagram/Reddit

Defending her decision to free birth, Ms Patti said she believed her twins had a syndrome known as “TTS”.

It’s believed Ms Patti is referencing TTTS (twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome) – a rare condition in which the blood flows unequally between twins that share a placenta.

“We believe our twins had TTS. It’s the only answer we have so far as to why they went the way they did and why they grew the way they did,” she wrote on Instagram.

“This means that they shared the same life force. They were connected with the same vessels on the placenta.”

She said if she had a scan her choices “would have been to either terminate and potentially birth them in hospital knowing they were not alive or undergo intensive ongoing laser surgery to try and separate them and keep them growing at the same pace.”

“Even with treatment the chance of one surviving is very low and the risk of them not being healthy once birthed is very high,” she claimed.

“My choice to free birth saved me. It allowed my boys to have nine months of pure love, and leave with pure love without intervention or distribution to the natural process of life and death,” she concluded.

Ms Patti claimed her twins had TTS. Picture: Instagram/Reddit.

A GoFundMe has been set up by the couple’s friend, Roseanna Sharp, to raise funds for the family, including funeral and therapy costs.

“Calling in community to hold the passage through birth, death and grief for Sally and her family,” Ms Sharp wrote on the fundraiser.

“On Sunday morning, new moon of Aquarius, Sally peacefully birthed her two twins in the waters of her home. In all of those waves of beauty, love, shock and heartbreak; Those two spirit babies didn’t have a contract with the earth outside her womb and at the same time of welcoming them in, she said goodbye.”

“We are setting up this donation portal to help share the weight and costs of the closing ceremony, funeral, various kinds of therapy for both Sally and Tom, medical bills, self care, healing medicines, and a trip away for the family to heal and land back into themselves after going through this heartaching experience.”

The fundraiser has raised over $15,000 at the time of publication.

In a statement, NSW Police said “officers attached to Tweed/Byron Police District ... are investigating the incident”.

A report will be prepared “for the information of the coroner”.